


An Ode to Tapirs

by hhertzof



Category: Mango & Bambang Series - Polly Faber
Genre: Gen, Ukuleles, stuffed Daleks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 12:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11874927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: Mango and Bambang make a couple of new friends





	An Ode to Tapirs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DWEmma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DWEmma/gifts).



Tapirs are very musically inclined and as a result, have been known to wander off when they hear music they like. Mango could hear someone singing and playing a stringed instrument in the distance, so she was unsurprised when Bambang ignored the inviting waves and started up the path towards the music. The path led them both up a rocky outcropping, winding around as it found the smoothest possible ground. 

Bambang found the path easier than Mango did, but she knew that if she followed the path she would find him eventually. By now she could make out the words of the song, which had something to do with otters.

"I'm not saying that otters are bad," Bambang was saying as Mango finally climbed the rough stone stairs at the very top of the path, and spotted his enormous floppy straw hat. "I just think that a song about tapirs would be better."

"I don't think I know a song about tapirs," said a woman who sounded vaguely familiar to Mango. "Maybe you need to write one."

"Maybe I should." Bambang wondered why he'd never thought of that before. _An Ode to Tapirs_. It would be his masterwork and Mango could play it on her clarinet while he sang.

Now Mango was close enough to see that Bambang was speaking to a woman with candyfloss hair. Not real candyfloss, but it was dyed in candyfloss colours. Mango rounded the bench the woman was sitting on and flopped down beside Bambang. "Miss Emma! Hi! I haven't seen you at the library in ages. I see you've met Bambang."

Bambang nodded as politely as one can when one is being attacked by a stuffed Dalek in the hands of a two-year-old. "This is Verity," Bambang said. "I hope she doesn't grow up believing that exterminating tapirs is appropriate behaviour."

Miss Emma and Mango both laughed at this and after a moment Bambang did too.

"Are we interrupting you?" Mango asked. "Were you practicing on that tiny guitar?"

"It's a ukulele," Miss Emma said. "I don't work at the library anymore since Verity was born, but I'm going to do a special program to teach kids how to play."

"I probably wouldn't be very good," Bambang said, with a sad glance at his hooves which weren't designed for stringed instruments. "But if Mango signs up, could I come in and listen?"

Mango wasn't sure if she wanted to learn to play the ukulele. "I already play the clarinet,"she said thoughtfully. "But, maybe," she reconsidered. "It might be nice to play an instrument I could sing along to. When I play the clarinet my mouth is too busy. How had is it?"

Miss Emma smiled. "It's very easy." She handed the ukulele to Mango and before Mango knew it, Miss Emma was showing her where to put her fingers and how to play a very simple song. Mango quickly mastered a handful of chords. She still wasn't sure she liked it better than the clarinet, but there was no reason to limit herself to just one instrument. Miss Emma said that if she practiced she could help out during the ukulele workshop. 

Bambang watched for a little while and then got distracted by trying to compose an _Ode to Tapirs_ in his head. It was going very well with lines like "I sing of a tapir who swam through the sea."and "Dance tapir dance to the beat of the drums." until Verity rudely interrupted his train of thought by taking his hat off his head to use as a boat for her Dalek. Bambang glared at her but wasn't sure how to tell a tiny human that it was rude to take the hat off of someone else's head and use it as a boat. It was a brand new hat too.

Finally, his worry about the state of his hat outweighed anything else and he said in his most polite voice, "If you give me my hat back, I'll tell you a very exciting story about how I _swam_ here from my home. I didn't even have a boat." To his surprise, this plan worked.

Verity took the Dalek out of his hat and put the hat back on Bambang's head. She lay down on her stomach with her arms wrapped around the Dalek, listening intently as the tapir told the story of how he'd met Mango.

It was a very good story and Bambang told it well. It wasn't long before Mango noticed that Miss Emma was more interested in the tale than in the ukulele. Mango stopped bothering her and started experimenting with the three chords she'd learnt already. She thought maybe she'd write a tapir song for Bambang as a surprise. This would be the sort of good surprise that Bambang would like, not the bad sort of surprise that made him want to hide in the back of the closet. She thought she might write him a song about tapirs who left the jungle and swam to the city and had exciting adventures. They could perform it as a duet in the talent show next month. "A tapir swam across the seas, across the sea and came to me." She thought that it wasn't a very good line but it was a start at least. 

"And that's how I came to live with Mango," Bambang finished, trying not to sneeze, which is very hard to do when a Dalek is climbing your nose.

"Again," Verity said, bouncing the Dalek off the rim of Bambang's hat and making it do a perfect swan dive into the grass. "More tapir 'tory."

"I don't think so," Miss Emma said. "We need to pick up daddy at Big Finish and go home for dinner now." She lifted up Verity and made sure the Dalek was safely tucked away in her bag, before turning to Mango and Bambang. "You'll both come to the workshop, won't you? I could use two good helpers."

"Of course we will," Mango said looking pleased with herself.

Bambang nodded vigorously. He hoped he wouldn't be stuck on baby-sitting duty again, though he liked Verity. But he knew he could finish his _Ode to Tapirs_ by then and maybe Mango would play music so he could sing it for the class. He was certain that it would be the best Ode ever written.

**Author's Note:**

> It's a good thing that authors are revealed at the same time as the stories. Consider this a wish for future happiness.


End file.
